Yes, blogging has become a huge business. In fact, there are several bloggers who have managed to turn their small blogs from zero into a full-six figure income.

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You’ve probably heard of Lindsay from Pinch of Yum? Well, she used to be a 4th-grade teacher and she started her blog as a part-time gig. Now she is making over six figures from her blog.

She’s not the only one who has been able to take a blog from zero to a full-time figure. There are a lot of other bloggers like Pat Flynn, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents and several others that started from zero and now make money with their blogs.

The best part is that they are no different than you or I. Only that they started way before you and me did, but they probably struggled with the same things that you’re going to face.

But no matter what type of things they struggled with, they never threw in the towel. They just kept going and striving to reach their goals.

This Doesn’t Mean You’ll Make Six Figures

I hate to burst your bubble, but just because these bloggers have been able to earn six figures from their blogs, doesn’t necessarily mean that or I will.

But at least if you know what it takes to create a successful blog, then you will increase your chances of earning from it.

After all, how can you create a successful blog if you don’t really know what it takes?

What Do People Need to Create A Successful Blog

I truly believe that anyone in the right blog niche can create a successful blog. Some niches take longer and some bloggers have success faster than others.

However, if you keep putting one foot in front of the other, then I have no doubt that you will be able to create the lifestyle you desire.

How Do I Know This?

Because we all start from zero. When I started this blog, I wasn’t getting any visitors. In fact, I waited until this blog was six months old before I really started promoting it.

Then I had no clue what I was doing because promotion is not really my thing. See, I love writing content, but it doesn’t matter how amazing your content is.

If no one knows about it, then no one is going to see it. I’ve really started focusing on using Pinterest for this blog and it is slowly growing.

I’d love to see faster results, but I have to keep reminding myself that blogging is a journey, not a sprint. I also have to remind myself to celebrate every little milestone I reach, no matter how small it is.

So let’s get into what it actually takes to create a successful blog. This way you’ll know what it actually takes and what you need to work on if you need to make any improvements.

Top 10 Things People Need to Create A Successful Blog

#1 Start With A Plan

A lot of people start a blog because they want to help people with their writing. Then there are those people who start a blog to help people and make money through their blog.

It really doesn’t matter which approach you take, the important thing is to have an end in mind. If you want to make money from your blog, that’s okay.

Don’t be ashamed of wanting to monetize your blog. Several people are making money from their blogs, just take a look at the bloggers I mentioned above.

After all if you start with a plan for your blog, it will be much easier to serve your audience. You can’t help your audience if you don’t know what you plan on doing or where you’re going with your blog.

Plus if you know that you want to make money with your blog, it will be a whole lot easier to create products people want, offer services people pay for and etc.

You see where I am going. You need to know what you want to do and where you want to go with your blog. It’s the only way that you’re going to get from Point A to Point B.

The cool thing is that you can always pivot and turn if you need to later on down the road.

There are going to be days that you feel like throwing in the towel because you’re not seeing results fast enough. These are the days that you’re going to have to remember why you started your blog in the first place.

Was it because you want to earn money from home so you can retire your significant other? (that’s my why)

Maybe you want to save money for retirement because you haven’t been very financially savvy in your younger years. (again my why)

Whatever got you motivated enough to start your blog, then you need to keep that in mind. Because there are going to be days that you feel like throwing in the towel because things aren’t working fast enough.

#3 Start On The Right WordPress Platform

I’ve seen it so many times in Facebook Groups where new bloggers get started on the wrong version of WordPress. Yes, there are two different WordPress versions.

You want to make sure that you start on a self-hosted WordPress blog. This gives you so much more freedom and you won’t have to worry about how you monetize your blog.

Plus you can get started on SiteGround for a ridiculously low price. Imagine being able to start a blog and turn it into a business for only around $47 a year for their beginner plan, $95.40 for their Grow Big plan, and $179.40 for their GoGeek plan.

I’m personally on the GrowBig Plan and the best part is that you can host multiple blogs on this one account. I know that a lot of bloggers eventually start a second blog.

I don’t know a lot of businesses that you can start for under $50, do you?

#4 Create A Blog Schedule

When your blog is brand new and you don’t have a lot of content, you might want to create 5-10 blog posts just so you have something to promote. (I wish I would’ve done this when I started)

Once you have a good number of posts, you can scale back your writing. You can choose to post once per week, 2x per week or 3x per week.

It doesn’t matter how many times you post per week. The important thing is to find a blogging schedule that works for you. This will help you stay consistent with your blogging routine.

I don’t recommend that you post daily because it will burn you out. Plus you’re about to find out the life of a blogger is a very jam-packed life. There’s always something that you’ll need to be doing to grow your blog.

#5 Create An Email List

As soon as you launch your blog, make sure that you start building your email list from day one. Don’t feel like you need to pay for ConvertKit, you can if you want to.

But I recommend starting with MailerLite because it will allow you to get your first 1,000 subscribers for free. Every successful blogger will say the same thing, start collecting emails from day one.

These are your people. Eventually, as they begin to trust you, they are the ones that will be buying the products and recommendations you make.

#6 Send Emails to Your List

It doesn’t matter if you have one person on your email list or 10 people on it. You want to start sending emails as soon as you start getting subscribers.

Why?

Because this will get you in the habit of writing emails to your subscribers. Plus it will also let your subscribers hear from you.

If you try to wait until you get your first 100 subscribers before sending your first email. Well, guess what?

They aren’t going to remember you and chances are you will get a lot of unsubscribes. You might even have some of them complain because they don’t remember you.

Don’t try to sell something in every email. I recommend starting with a welcome email when someone signs up for your freebie. This will help them understand what type of emails they will be getting and what to expect from you. Here’s a great article that will help you understand what type of emails to send your list.

#7 Start Learning Pinterest

One of the things that I wish I could do over actually takes the time to learn how to use Pinterest. It took me over a year to really dig my feet in and start learning how to use this platform.

Don’t be scared to invest in BoardBooster or Tailwind to help you set up some automation. One of the things that I have learned is that Pinterest likes active pinners.

I’ve tried my hand at using nothing but manual pinning. But between me and you, I don’t want to be tied to my computer every day.

That’s why I use a combination of social media schedulers and some manual pinning.

Do whatever you have to start learning how to use Pinterest. It’s going to be your best friend until Google starts sending you some traffic.

#8 Don’t Try to Be Everywhere

One of the things that a lot of bloggers tell new bloggers is that you need to try to be everywhere. You need to guest post, comment, create Facebook Live videos, YouTube videos, use Instagram and etc.

Trust me, that’s not going to help you accomplish anything. All it’s going to do is give you a headache. Instead of trying to be everywhere, you need to find out where your people are.

This means that you need to install Google Analytics on your WordPress blog. This will help you know where people are coming from to land on your blog.

Once you know where your people hang out. Do everything that you can to master that one platform. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you need to be everywhere if you want to create a successful blog.

Mater one platform and then move on to another. That’s the only way that you’re going to ever really understand the platform that is sending you traffic.

#9 Engage With Your People

Once people start finding your blog, make sure that you’re responding to comments. Try to get to know them a little by asking questions and finding out what people want.

This will help you better understand how you can help them with your content and your products.

When you’re first starting a blog, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what works. You won’t really know what your readers want unless you ask them.

If you still don’t have anyone to ask, then head on over and jump into some niche related Facebook Groups. You will quickly see what types of questions your audience is asking.

What do people want the most? When you can understand this and give them exactly what they want.

This is when people will flock to your blog. People will know that you’re the go-to person and your blog will just grow. Plus it’s nice knowing that your blog is actually helping someone.

#10 Network With Other Bloggers

Blogging can get lonely at times, especially, when you’re not seeing the success as quickly as you had hoped. Networking with other bloggers can help you and your blog.

When you take the time to reach out to other bloggers, they will understand the hardships and the small successes that you reach. After all, they are bloggers too.

Your blogging friends will celebrate your wins with you. They’ll even be there to give you motivation and help you get through the rough days.

So how do you find these blogging friends? Well, Facebook of course.

You can either create your own Facebook group and invest 4-6 bloggers that you want to start a mastermind with. Or you can just join a blogging group where you will meet other bloggers just like you.

Either way, it’s important to get out from behind your computer and start reaching out to other bloggers. It’s lonely trying to do it all by yourself.

Final Take Away

The journey to creating a successful blog is a long and tiring one. Just remember that you can’t do it one day. It takes time to create a successful blog.

However, if you follow these tips, chances are you’ll see the success that you’re looking for. Just remember to keep putting one foot in front of the other and before you know it, you’ll look back and see how far you’ve come.

Don’t forget to celebrate all the small successes on your way to the top.

ShareASale: ShareASale is one of my favorite affiliate networks. It’s free to sign up and they have tons of advertisers that make it easy for any blogger to make money through affiliate marketing.

SEMRush: This tool is amazing and has helped me increase my organic traffic. It is expensive, so don’t pay for it every month. When I’m NOT using it, I’m using KWFinder to help me with my keyword research.

About Susan Velez

Hi! I'm Susan welcome to my blog. Are you ready to use the Internet and a computer to change your finances? I share tips to help you make money online through blogging, side hustles and other non-traditional methods learn moreTwitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube

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